Innovating Education

Course Design in Canvas LMS

Practical application of technology

Whitepaper

By Chantal Westerveld, MSc & Fleur Deenen, MSc.

In charge of designing your course in Canvas LMS? Technology will influence the didactical choices you make!

Course Design in Canvas LMS

Practical application of technology

IntroductionRecent technological developments are changing even the most conservative industries, and education is not

staying behind. Logically so, because effectively shaping minds of students worldwide is of the utmost importance.

Empowering this innovation is Canvas Learning Management System (LMS), which is increasingly being adopted by

educational institutes as their primary LMS.

According to Koehler and Mishra (2005): “Good teaching is not simply

adding technology to the existing teaching and content domain.”(p.134).

This sentiment illustrates the importance of properly incorporating new

technology by revising the entire process, rather than just going with the flow.

Implementing a new LMS gives instructional designers a perfect opportunity

to take a close look at their course design.

Throughout this whitepaper, we hope to help you (re)design courses by

showing you how to properly combine a design cycle for course development,

with all of the benefits that Canvas LMS has to offer.

“Good teaching is not simply adding technology to the existing teaching and content domain”

4 Drieam Whitepaper - Course Design in Canvas LMS - Practical application of technology

Design cycleSeveral educational design models have been introduced over the last couple of decades. For the sake of this

whitepaper, we have chosen to have a closer look at the ADDIE-approach as this widely used, generic design model

can be applied to (almost) every educational domain (Dick, Carey & Carey, 2009).

ADDIE consists of five interrelated phases: Analyze (identification of structural problem), Design (deciding on learning

objectives, instructional methods and activities), Develop (creation of content and learning interactions such as cases,

instructions and videos), Implementation (delivery of content to the students) and Evaluation.

We believe that every modern and successful educational program starts with mapping out relevant learning

outcomes, that is why we assume an outcome-oriented way of instructional design (Gulikers & Van Benthum, 2013).

After finishing your program, what will your students have gained in terms of professional attitude, knowledge and

skills? Defining learning outcomes will help determine what kind of assessment is best used within your specific

course. This assessment program in turn will help you decide which teaching methods, educational resources and

activities should be defined.

In this whitepaper, we’ll zoom in on the Design phase of the ADDIE-approach, which we split up in four steps:

Learning Outcomes, Assessment, Content and Didactics (see Figure 1). Additionally, we will also reflect on the

Evaluation phase of the ADDIE-approach towards the end of the document, because this crucial step generates

important information for future course designs. Please keep in mind to always stay close to your own educational

vision when (re)designing your course.

Figure 1. A closer look at the Design cycle of the ADDIE-approach

Design Phase, Step 1. Learning outcomes What will your students be able to do after completing the cycle?

According to Gosling and Moon (2001), a learning outcome is defined as something a learner is expected to know,

understand and/or be able to demonstrate at the end of a “period of learning”.

It won’t come as a surprise that the first thing to do, when working with an outcome-based approach to learning, is

to define which learning outcomes you want your students to achieve. While defining these outcomes, it is important

to include specific outcomes in terms of observable behavior (Magner, 1975). We suggest using the revised Bloom’s

Taxonomy (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001) to help you define these outcomes by using active verbs.

Once defined, presenting your outcomes to students will stimulate the learning process (Woolfolk, Hughes and

Walkup, 2008). This is important because it’s proven that students need ‘focus’ to help their brains distinguish between

important and less important information (Dirksen, Boer, Möller & Willemse, 2014).

Canvas allows you to facilitate all of this. You can use the LMS to add an overview of all relevant learning outcomes to

the homepage or introduction page of a module (see Figure 2). It also allows you to use the Outcome functionality,

through which you can clearly define the learning outcomes including different mastery levels.

Figure 2. Entering learning outcomes in Canvas LMS

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Present learning outcomes to stimulate student learning

Add applicable learning outcomes to the course using the outcome functionalityState learning outcomes on the homepage

Add an introduction page with learning outcomes to every module

6 Drieam Whitepaper - Course Design in Canvas LMS - Practical application of technology

ASSESSMENT

Align grading with learning outcomes Use outcomes in rubrics for grading

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Judgements about student learning at the end of a period of learning.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Monitor process to shape and improve student’s competence.

FORMATIVE FEEDBACK

Helping students get insight in the progress of their learning.

Graded quizzesGraded assignmentsGraded discussions

Show results in Gradebook

Ungraded quizzesUngraded assignmentsUngraded discussions

Practice quizzesSurveys

Automated feedback in quizzesManual feedback in Speedgrader

Peer feedback

Design Phase, Step 2. Assessment How will you assess the learning outcomes?

Now that we’ve established clear learning outcomes, it’s time to move on to the next step in the Design Cycle:

Assessment. In assessment, we distinguish three different ways: Summative Assessment, Formative Assessment and

(direct) Formative Feedback. Each way has its own benefits and use in your course design, as well as the Canvas

functionalities, which you can see in Figure 3.

It is crucial that you choose the kind of assessment that fits your defined learning outcomes (Nusche, 2008). Canvas

helps you to make the right decision by offering an optional usage of learning outcomes in assessment rubrics. In

doing so, learning outcomes are directly used as a guideline for grading assignments, quizzes and discussions.

Figure 3. Assessment in Canvas

Design Phase, Step 3. Content What kind of content will you present to your students?

Up next is Content. What are you going to offer? How will you deliver it to your students? To ensure the quality of

content, we advise you to think about these three steps in this phase: selection, organization and presentation (see

Figure 4). Starting with selection, we suggest making sure that your content meets the following criteria:

� The content aligns with former knowledge (Dochy, 1993)

� The content comes across as interesting and catches the attention of readers (Hidi, 2006)

� The content matches the learning outcomes or personal goals of the students (Keller, 1987).

With organization and presentation, it is important to take into account the effect of visual representation of your

content. We would advise the use of predefined course templates, which are an excellent starting point for course

development. Through these templates you can pre-structure the file storage repository, the course navigation

and the homepage. Another note on the importance of proper presentation: according to the dual coding theory

(Clarck & Paivio, 1991), the best way to stimulate students is by confronting them with audiovisual material like for

instance a video. The way written and visual content is presented plays an exceptionally important role in getting

and maintaining the interest and attention of your students (Hartley, 1999). Length, structure and layout of on-screen

texts have to be correct (Lutgerink, n.d.), logical and free of redundant information.

With Canvas, you can make sure the content is clutter-free by creating links to additional Canvas pages. It’s a perfect

way to keep your pages light, without sacrificing on content!

LEARNING CONTENT

1. Selection Proper content does not always mean you have to develop it

Canvas commons: contains a collection of Canvas materials which are free to useShare your material in Commons as well, for colleagues or others to use

Use modules for sense of order

3. Presentation

Use Rich Content Editor

Share ideas in the Public Course IndexShowcase your course, inspire others!

Indicate level of content

Use Mastery Paths to control the content shown to a student

Use interactive apps to enrich (eg. FeedbackFruits, h5p, Thinglink)

ARC for interactive video

Figure 4. Selecting, organizing and presenting content via Canvas

2. Organization Use templates to pre-structure the files, course navigation and homepage

8 Drieam Whitepaper - Course Design in Canvas LMS - Practical application of technology

Design Phase, Step 4. Didactics How will you deliver the learning content to your students? What specific activities will you present that enable students to learn?

If you have chosen to incorporate new technology and online learning into your educational program, you will

have to decide on the what and how. Which content will be discussed during face-to-face sessions

with your students and which will be used online? That brings us to the final step of our Design

phase: Didactics! Thankfully, there are plenty of options to choose from, based on your own

educational vision.

Let’s have a look at some of the options. According to a literature review by Lee, Lim &

Kim (2017), online learning activities are most useful in situations where factual learning

content is transferred using less intensive and challenging activities, whereas face-to-face

meetings are more suitable when students need to work on intensive and complex tasks where

collaboration is needed, in order to achieve a shared focus and common understanding.

Fransen (2013) supports these findings, stating that there are three ways of learning, depending on the position of

the learner in the process, as well as the function of the learner’s environment. These ways of learning are: individual

self-study, learning through experts, and collaborative learning. Fransen observed that individual self-study is best

suited for well documented and stable knowledge, while learning through experts helps with processing knowledge.

Lee, Lim & Kim (2017) argue that, in order to reach a common understanding while working on more complex tasks,

collaborative learning is simply put the best way to go.

In order to provide you with the means to get the most out of all three ways of learning, we provide you with some

examples on when to use the different Canvas functionalities (see Figure 5).

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Well documented stable knowledge

Process new knowledge Complex situations

ContentpagesAssignments

Quizzes with auto feedbackMastery Paths

ePortfolio

VideoConferences

Moderator in discussionsFeedback in Speedgrader

GroupsDiscussions

CollaborationsPeer reviewConferencesWiki pages

Figure 5. Learning activities in Canvas divided based on ways of learning

Make a blend that aligns with your educationbal vision.

Individual self-study Learning through experts Collaborative learning

Evaluation Phase How will you evaluate your design in order to constantly improve your course?

Congratulations on finishing the Design phase of your course! Assuming that you will continue to develop and

implement, you will thereafter reach the Evaluation phase of the ADDIE-approach. Arguably the most important

phase, because evaluation will help you approach instructional design as a continuous cycle. Whatever your findings

will be, the evaluation should be used to improve the course each and every time you complete another cycle.

Canvas will help you to get the most out of your evaluations by using automatically gathered data from the Course

Analytics and Learning Mastery (see Figure 6). Course Analytics will give you real-time information on the quality of

your learning materials as well as on the structure of your course (Bogaard et al., 2016), while Learning Mastery will

offer valuable insight into student learnings and their specific needs.

EVALUATION

Course analytics Learning mastery

Real time overview of activity, interaction and assignments, which might help to improve the

course in the future.

Insight in performance on learning outcomes in order to better assess student needs.

Figure 6. Evaluation through course analytics and learning mastery

10 Drieam Whitepaper - Course Design in Canvas LMS - Practical application of technology

Course Analytics offer very insightful data. With the help of this data, instructional designers will be able to answer

the following questions and edit their courses accordingly:

� Which materials are most used?

� How active are students on discussions?

� Which students are behind on learning and what support do they need?

� Do students hand in assignments on time? Does this say something about the assignment level?

For Learning Mastery, Canvas has the ‘Learning Mastery Gradebook’, which automatically gathers data of assignments,

quizzes and discussions. Given the fact that the Gradebook presents you with relevant data, connected to the

assessment of learning outcomes in step 2, this information is particularly useful during your evaluation.

Take this scenario for example: if a single student scores low on one of your

selected learning outcomes, you may consider giving him or her extra attention

to help them improve. Whereas if all your students encounter difficulties it might

be more accurate to say that it is your course, which needs help.

In order to come to the root of this issue, a new cycle might be necessary to revise

your learning outcomes, assessment, content or didactics. Whichever issue you

will find could be fundamental for the future effectiveness of your course.

Conclusion Seeing more and more educational institutes embrace technological assistance is great, however it is important to

guide this development in the right direction to protect the quality of education as a whole. Learning to use new

tools offers these institutes a perfect chance to reevaluate their courses and approach instructional design from a

new angle. Going through cycles creates an ever-lasting feedback loop through which you will constantly be able to

improve your own courses.

We believe that a cyclic approach to the Design-phase of ADDIE, paired with Canvas LMS will help you to make

the right choices when (re)designing your materials. Hopefully this whitepaper will make the switch towards this

technology easier and more enjoyable.

We are looking forward to hearing about your experiences and would like to emphasize that we are always available

if you have further questions or find yourself in need of some assistance. Please do not hesitate to contact us if this

is the case!

Results of evaluations should be used to make better choices when redesigning courses

References Anderson, L. W. & Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing. A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York/San Francisco: Longman.

Bogaard, M. van den, Drachsler, H., Duisterwinkel, H., Knobbout, J., Manderveld, J., Wit, M. de, (2016). Learning analytics in het onderwijs: een onderwijskundig perspectief. SURFnet.

Clark, J. M. & Paivio, A. (1991). Dual coding theory and education. Educational Psychology Review, 3, 149-210.

Dick, W., Carey, L., & Carey, J. (2009). Systematic design of instruction (7th ed.). Toronto: Allyn & Bacon.

Dirksen, G., Boer, M. de, Möller, H., & Willemse, J. (2014). Breindidactiek, helpen leren met breinkennis. Synaps Uitgeverij.

Dochy, F. J. R. C. (1993). De invloed van voorkennis op het leerresultaat en het leerproces. In Tomic, W. & Span, P. Onderwijspsychologie: Beïnvloeding, verloop en resultaten van leerprocessen. Utrecht. Lemma

Fransen, J. (2013). Toekomstgericht onderwijs bij Inholland; Instrumentatie van betekenisvolle interactie. Hogeschool Inholland; Lectoraat Teaching, Learning & Technology. Den Haag.

Gosling, D., & Moon, J. (2001). How to write learning outcomes and assessment criteria. London: SEEC Office, University of East London.

Gulikers, J. T. M., & Benthum, N. van. (2013). Toetsen in het hoger onderwijs. Houten: Bohn Stafleu van Loghum

Hartley, J. (1999). What does it say? Text design, medical information and older readers. In DC. Park, R.W. Morrell & K. Shrifin (Eds.). Processing of medical information in aging patients, 233-247. Mahwah, N.J: Erlbaum.

Hidi, S. (2006). Interest: A unique motivational variable. Educational Research Review, 1, 69-82.

Keller, J. (1987). Strategies for stimulating the motivation to learn. Performance & Instruction, October 1987, 1-7.

Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2005). What happens when teachers design educational technology? The development of technological pedagogical content knowledge. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 32(2), 131- 152.

Lee, J., Lim, C, & Kim, H. (2017). Development of an instructional design model for flipped learning in higher education. Education Tech Research Dev, 65, 427-453.

Lutgerink, J. (n.d.) Redactionele richtlijnen en schermpresentatie. Geschreven in opdracht van het Ruud de Moor Centrum, Open Universiteit. Retrieved from http://content-e.ou.nl/ content-e/pub_RDMC/Redactionele_ richtlijnen_en_schermpresentatie_1288621410413/index.htm.

Mager, R. F. (1975). Preparing instructional objectives. Belmont, CA.: Fearon.

Nusche, D. (2008). Assessment of learning outcomes in higher education: a comparative review of selected practices. Innovación Educativa, 8(45), 36-77.

Woolfolk, A. H., Hughes, M., & Walkup, V. (2008). Psychology in Education. Edinburgh Gate: Pearson Education.

Innovating Education

drieam.com

DrieamKlokgebouw 260 (6th floor), 5617 AC EINDHOVEN, The Netherlands

T +31 40 30 46 346E info@drieam.com

About DrieamWe’re passionate about developing smart learning applications that make learning better. As an educational start-

up located in tech-city Eindhoven, we know how important it is to build software that people love to use. We

combine this with the best technologies to build reliable web applications that last. Our services help to make a

lasting success of the applications. This way we realize true digital innovations.

Copyright © 2018 Drieam. All rights reserved. The information contained in this document is intended for general information only, as it is summary

in nature and subject to change. Any third-party brand names and/or trademarks referenced are either registered or unregistered trademarks of their

respective owners.

Version 1 English